A federal judge has thrown out a longstanding copyright infringement case brought against Google by the Authors Guild, saying the company's book-scanning project provides significant benefits to the public.

Judge Denny Chin, formerly of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, dismissed the author advocacy group's 8-year-old copyright lawsuit against Google on Thursday. Google's Books project is protected by U.S. fair use doctrine, Chin ruled.

The benefits of the Google Books project "are many," Chin wrote in his ruling. "Google Books provides a new and efficient way for readers and researchers to find books. It makes tens of millions of books searchable by words and phrases."

Google Books has become "an essential research tool, as it helps librarians identify and find research sources, it makes the process of interlibrary lending more efficient, and it facilitates finding and checking citations," Chin added.